As someone whoo has experience with transcribing, I can offer the following advice:

Try to watch through slowly, if you can. I don't know if it's possible to slow down an .inp, but if you convert to avi, you can slow that down, or even framestep, if necessary.

Know the limit of how fast you can go. Mine is just under 30tpm.

Games that display more than one next piece are easier, because you have some buffer space. I don't have experience of trying to do a game with only 1 preview, but I imagine that it would be slower.

If possible, try to type on a different computer than the one that you are watching it on, so that you can pause and move around the video without having to switch windows. I've found that using my DS to write the sequence down works well. You may find that writing them down and then typing them later may be easier for you.

I had another check, and it appears there's (at least) two power on patterns. The 1988 version of SEGA Tetris, running on SEGA System-16 hardware, has the famous power on pattern that I listed in my previous post. The 1989 version, running on the Taito B-System, has a different power on pattern, that begins LOOJSI...

The Taito pattern is probably the lesser known of the two, and I don't know if it has been transcribed anywhere. zaphod77, if you want to upload your .inp somewhere, I wouldn't mind having a go at transcribing it.

I don't know if this is news to anybody, but it appears that the SEGA power on pattern is available in heboris mini, and the first 1000 pieces is transcribed in the heboris.ini file.

Click to expand...

Does Heboris restart the sequence after 1000 or revert to some other randomizer? I guess it wouldn't be that important for its TGM simulation modes, which end after about 750 pieces (level 999) or 950 pieces (level 1300).

I don't know if this is news to anybody, but it appears that the SEGA power on pattern is available in heboris mini, and the first 1000 pieces is transcribed in the heboris.ini file.

Click to expand...

Does Heboris restart the sequence after 1000 or revert to some other randomizer? I guess it wouldn't be that important for its TGM simulation modes, which end after about 750 pieces (level 999) or 950 pieces (level 1300).

Click to expand...

If you abused the X99 level stop, I bet you could exceed 1000 with Shirase's 1300 levels.

The B system version does not save nvram, and thus restores the poweron pattern.

It appears that the transcription in heboris mini is indeed the poweron pattern, from a fresh nvram.

It will repeat the sequence, i believe. The setting for it is "custom" randomizer.

Alternatively, the bootleg version doesn't save mvram on my version of MAME, and always gets the poweron sequence. Is the bootleg version the most common on location? SOmeone needs to test their real board and see if they need to wipe nvram.